Effective Learning After Acquired Brain Injury

Citation

Fisher, M. (2016), "Effective Learning After Acquired Brain Injury", The Journal of Forensic Practice, Vol. 18 No. 4, pp. 311-312. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-03-2016-0015

This is a brief and excellent volume, which seeks to offer both insight and practical advice to practitioners working in the Criminal Justice Field. The role of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) in the criminal justice field is an area that is currently attracting a great deal of attention and this is reflected in the forewords by Lord David Ramsbotham and by Peter McCabe, Chief Executive of Headway, a charity supporting people with ABI.

The role that ABI might play in the understanding and explaining the behaviour and thinking of offenders has been explored by various authors and in various contexts, and the use of neuropsychological testing to seek to establish common patterns of or prevalence of ABI will be familiar territory for many practitioners in the field.

This volume though seeks to explore and focus upon ways in which more widely, educational and other programs of assistance might be best adapted to suit the needs of and be responsive to people with ABI. By definition this includes people with ABI in a forensic context whose responsivity needs are the same as people in the general community. The approaches advocated will transfer simply to a custodial or other secure setting and provide for realistic ways that offenders with ABI can be included in accessing educational development effectively. As such it is a valuable asset to any practitioner looking to get a better understanding of how to work most effectively with what can be a challenging client group.

The volume is presented in four parts, which build to provide a clear and concise picture of what is a vast field of knowledge and practice.

Part 1 provides a concise yet thorough description of brain function and how issues might arise in terms of functioning, from a structural standpoint. For anyone not familiar with brain anatomy this is in in itself an excellent short course, and for others a timely aide memoire for non-neuropsychologists.

Part 2 describes the outcomes and consequences of ABI and the various forms in which we might see ABI manifested. In particular physical, sensory, perceptual and mood deficits are described, before moving on to consider attention deficits, memory deficits, executive function deficits and finally information processing and communication deficits.

Part 3 offers evidence and assessment based approaches for the management of neuropsychological difficulties. It is in this section that the volume really comes live, providing real world approaches and options for practitioners that, as noted might be applied in therapeutic, treatment and educational contexts equally.

Part 4 provides a series of appendices, which when considered alongside the web-based resources accessible through the book, enable a bespoke, or more general approach to meeting need responsively to be planned.

The use of case studies and the general approach to the writing adopted by the authors make this an easily accessible volume that any practitioner regularly, or less frequently, working with ABI sufferers in an educational or learning context is likely to benefit from reading.

The balance between neuropsychological theory and its findings is well balanced and the structure, as stated above is user friendly.

The volume is well referenced and includes a short glossary.